The Right Choice
by GummyTime
Summary: Sanji decides to leave the Strawhat Crew and Nami can't help but feel that it's her fault. As she immerses in overwhelming guilt, she must face her biggest fear or hide from it altogether. One-shot. No pairings.


"I'm leaving." Sanji stated. I ignored him and began to talk again when he interrupted and repeated again. "I said I'm leaving." His voice was dry as if he had already planned this a long time ago and didn't have any change of minds.

I stopped talking and made eye contact with him – with those eyes that resembled icicles - and wondered when he started using those eyes on people. He frowned a bit as if in exasperation, and then let out a sigh. I forced a laugh but let my eyes stay focused on him.

"You know you should leave the lies to Usopp…" I tried but he only looked away. "I thought that this problem was over! That everything was settled… was it not?"

The blond man reached down to his suitcase and picked it up, causing the objects inside to clatter inside the case. He made his way to the door, never hesitating, and briskly placed his hand on the door knob. "It's not your fault." He maintained the calm tone in his voice and left the cabin without turning back.

I stared at his back until it disappeared from the deck altogether. Then I gathered myself and slowly made my way to the main lounge where the rest of the crew was. I needed to escape this room and block my mind from taking in what had just happened. I couldn't let these tears fall. I had to be strong. I had to be myself.

The door to the lounge was close by so it was only moments until I reached it. I refused to open it, not yet. I needed to breathe, to rehearse how I would relay this message onto them. Should I say it with remorse and pity? Anger? Shock? What was I supposed to feel in these situations? What would be the normal thing for me to do?

I clenched my fist and almost banged my hands on the walls of the lounge but caught myself in time. I needed to compose myself. Inhaling and exhaling a couple more times, I regained a sense of reality again.

I began to formulate the plan again when the door to the room suddenly opened and Chopper burst out like a rocket. My reflexes automatically allowed me to dodge the little reindeer and he soon crashed onto the opposite wall of the hallway.

"Oh, Namwhe! Wey! Vat are you dwoing out zhere?" Luffy grinned with his face stuffed with meat and waved both his arms at me. Oh crap. As soon as Luffy saw me, the rest of the crew also realized my existence and greeted me as well. That idiot!

"Ahaha~ Hey everyone! Having fun?" I tried my cheery voice. It was great that I could act but I knew improvising wouldn't last me any longer. I could feel Zoro's eyes piercing through me like he already knew that the only member missing from this party was Sanji.

Trying my best to maintain the smile, I ignored the green-haired swordsman and walked casually to the sofa placed at the middle of the room. Everyone eyed me curiously when I grabbed the nearest drink to where I was sitting and chugged it to the last drop. Then I slammed down the mug and stared intently at the straw hat across from me.

"Luffy." I called out. I had to be quick about it before I lost my confidence.

The monkey-boy stopped trying to hit Zoro and looked down at me.

"Sanji left." As soon as the words left my mouth, the entire lounge went silent. "I tried to stop him but…" Then the tears began to threaten my eyes but I refused to let it win. No, not here.

The silence that I had brought did not break. It stood there like a giant boulder, heavy and too intimidating to go against. In fact this solemn air continued until the evening as one by one the crew left the lounge and headed towards their own cabins. One by one, until the only ones left were Zoro and me. Luffy had been the first to leave.

I, too, got up to retire from the long day when Zoro's deep voice echoed across the room. "Is it because of that last incident?"

We all knew that Zoro and Sanji were incomparable when it came to teamwork. Although it looked like they were constantly fighting on the outside, when it came to a serious crisis, they became an amazing team that proved valuable in every battle.

Eyeing the glossy tiled floors, I nodded to Zoro's question. I lingered for a few minutes to see if he would say anything more but he didn't. So I left the lounge and the boulder behind, and went to my personal cabin. I needed to escape.

When the doors to the navigation room creaked behind me and the smell of paper and ink overwhelmed me, I could no longer keep my tears locked away. "No- NO!" I screamed as the salty water flooded my vision and glided down my cheeks. "STOP! Let me stop… these tears…" I choked and gasped for breath but this cursed fluid only grew in time. My chest burned me inside out from the frustration until I had to lean on the desk to hold myself up. It was so painful… Why did it have to be so painful?

I don't know what happened after that because when I gained conscious, I wasn't in my cabin anymore; I was at Sanji's cabin and the curly-eyebrow cook was standing right before me.

"S-Sanji? Why are you here?" I quickly brushed my eyes with my fingers but I realized that the tears were no longer present and I didn't seem to be hallucinating. "Is that really you?" Was everything about you leaving just a dream?

"Nami-san… I have something to tell you." The cook opened his mouth and said in almost a whisper. I cringed. Something was off. A déjà vu? What was this feeling? The sense of dread started from my throat and outlined my spine into goosebumps.

Sanji ignored me and continued on, "I think… I might be leaving this crew-"

"NO!" I quickly clasped my hands over my ears and desperately forbade his voice to enter. Every part of my body rejected whatever he was saying. And yet even though I tried to become deaf, I heard his voice loud and clear.

"-leaving this crew to search for All-Blue. I wanted to really continue this journey with everyone but I heard from someone that… All-Blue was located near an island near the Grand Line. They offered to take me there-"

"We can all go together you know… I'm sure Luffy will be glad to take you there." My heart skipped a beat when I heard the second voice interrupt Sanji. I gently let go of my ears and stared at Sanji. I realized his eyes weren't staring into mine. They were fixed on someone behind me.

I wiped a bead of sweat and gently turned around. I came face to face with myself. "W-what?" I took a step backwards. What was going on? Why were there two of me?

Electrified, my insides jiggled and I felt my skin grow cold. I brought my hands to eye level and stared at them. Were these really my hands? Was I the real 'Nami'? I didn't know the answer.

A strange fear dawned upon me and I felt the urge to escape once again. I rushed to the cabin doors and grabbed the door knobs but it refused to budge. I banged the doors as loud as I could and screamed, hoping that someone would hear, but I could not get out.

"To Luffy, his dream is to go forward. If he takes me back to the Grand Line, he's only hindering his goal. You know that, Nami-san." Sanji's voice continued the conversation and I couldn't help but overhear them – Sanji and this girl whose name was Nami.

"But it's Luffy we're talking about! Surely he'll-" 'Nami' cried out, sweat outlining all over her face, but the cook shook his head with a sad smile. "N-no? How about this? I'll find a way… I'll make a map that connects where L-Luffy's heading, to the Grand Line. Then we can all be happy! With my m-mapping abilities, I'm sure I can do t-that."

Sanji's face didn't change from that sad smile. "Thank you Nami-san."

I stared in disbelief at this woman, 'Nami', and stared at her lifeless eyes. I slapped her face, but she stood still like a doll. I slapped her again, harder than last time, but she didn't even wince. Then the anger exploded inside me and screamed.

"YOU IDIOT! WHY DID YOU PROMISE SOMETHING YOU COULDN'T KEEP?"

Instead of responding with the same lifeless blank, her pupils moved and stared straight through me. I flinched. She took a step forward and pointed her index finger at me. "Why did you promise something you couldn't keep?" she said with a glare and when her finger came in contact with my forehead, I lost consciousness.

I must have been at the bridge that joined my reality with my dream because everything was white – blank. Swimming in a blank space, I stretched my arms and legs and imitated the motion of making snow angels. It was like paradise and I giggled a bit at the painless memories but when I looked beside me, I saw a clone of myself. Immediately everything came back to me, of Sanji, the promise, and the "I'm leaving"… everything came back to me.

"Why did you promise something you couldn't keep?" She said again.

I looked away and felt guilt creeping in slyly from the shadows.

"What are you afraid of?" She pushed on with a more fierce tone this time. "It's not only about Sanji leaving, is it?"

"It's because… because I don't want everything to be just a dream!" I yelled a reply but the blank space echoed my voice much shorter and louder than it was supposed to be. "Just a dream… just a dream… a dream…"

My clone smirked. "Think twice, Nami. Everything is really just a dream. Did you really think that someone would truly call you 'nakama'?" Strangely, the clone began to lose its colour and shape and began to turn into a dough-like substance. Then I could slowly see its face forming.

"You? Don't make me laugh." The chin became sharp and black hair began to take form.

"You're just a piece of trash." Blue skin… square jaws… everything was fitting together like jigsaw puzzles.

"I know your kind, Nami… I've met thousands and I've killed most of them too… do you know why?" A nose bulged out of the middle of its face and began to mould itself into the shape of a saw, finishing the living sculpture. I looked at the finished 'clone' with horror.

"Because they're all traitors!" Arlong laughed but his eyes refused to smile along with his mouth. I desperately tried to run away from him, but grabbed air instead. I had to get away… get away!

"-mi!" A voice interrupted my thoughts. I realized that the only way out of this world was to enter the dream world or enter reality. I didn't have to hesitate to pick one.

"NAMI!"

I bolted up from the bed and sat up, dazed, at the faces of the members of the crew. I must have been sweating so much because my hair was wet and the pillow I had been using was completely soaked. I reached my aching head with my hands and felt tears of relief trickling down. I had escaped from Arlong…

"Are you okay, Nami?" Luffy sat right beside me with dark circles under his eyes. The rest of the crew began to either cry in relief or laugh hideously in relief. Either way, the voices of my nakama comforted me like a lullaby. Then I saw a speck of yellow among the members.

"… S-Sanji?" I stammered and he replied with a smile.

"Welcome back, Nami-san."

I stared at him in surprise. "What happened to you?" I greeted him with a bright smile that I could not contain. Joy was overflowing at the sight of him again.

"Nami-san, I actually have something I need to tell you… Can you come by my cabin later on?"

Sweat was starting to form again on my face.

The End.

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><p>AN: I'm wondering whether this story was too complicated to write, or not. Either way, since in the anime of OP they are talking about Arlong, I decided to do one just for Nami. One thing I really couldn't do was make an emo-Sanji... Ugh. Sanji doesn't sound like Sanji and Nami doesn't sound like Nami. Gosh... I suck at this...<p> 


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